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Polar bear with carrot

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Spirit

One of my favorite California bands was Spirit. Randy California was a great player and singer who met his unfortunate demise trying to rescue his son from the surf in Hawaii in 1997. Randy, born Randy Wolf, played for a short time with Hendrix and the band Jimmy James and the Blue Flames as a young man.  California wrote the song Taurus as a 16 year old, a song that was purloined by Led Zeppelin and turned into Stairway to Heaven.

California's stepfather and Spirit member Ed Cassidy was a jazz drummer who had played with Monk, Adderly and Kirk. Unsung band, and one with a unique sound. I put Dr. Sardonicus up there with Forever Changes and Sergeant Peppers in terms of seminal rock albums.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Spirit was a great band 12 dreams is a great album
Help get Spirit into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/12dreams/petition-sign.html